Lead network engineer Terrance Hedgepeth is prioritizing AI readiness.
Hedgepeth credits his late mother with noticing his interest in computers while he was at Trenton Central High School. She supported him by enrolling him in an A+ Network+ program at Urbanus Technical Institute in Elizabeth, NJ, over the summer, where he learned how to build computers. In his senior year of high school, he completed an elective with a third-party company in partnership with Cisco Networking Academy. As his skills grew, he attended Mercer County Community College to study network engineering and built and fixed computers on the side during the Nextel and Boost Mobile era.
Hedgepeth told AFROTECH™ he worked in a couple of technology assistant roles with public school districts, and then he moved on to working with several corporate companies, including Cisco, Quest Diagnostics, NJM Insurance Group, and Enclara Pharmacia.
Since 2017, he has also been the founder, managing director, and IT consultant of Designer Technologies, an IT services and consulting company that aims to provide small-to-medium-sized businesses the same level of care as an enterprise.
The venture had been dormant, but as of 2026, he has resumed work on it full-time, leveraging AI agents.
“I did a lot of contract work … I’ve mastered my craft, and now I would like to own my own work and everything I do, and build equity in it,” he told AFROTECH™.
Designer Technologies
Designer Technologies’ prospective clients must first complete an assessment detailing their budget, how they use technology, and their goals for achieving desired outcomes, and then complete an intake form outlining how many computers, endpoints, devices, servers, and employees are within their organization. Based on this information, Designer Technologies develops a three-tier service solution, ranging from basic support to a more comprehensive package that includes four hours of project work, such as upgrading cybersecurity initiatives.
Hedgepeth recalled one project in which his company completed a firewall migration to strengthen a client’s cybersecurity infrastructure.
“Reduced the rules to about 30% — I think it was 500 rules written to about 350. From a technical standpoint, we reduced it a good amount of percentage and increased visibility into the new Palo Alto Networks because they were centrally managed,” he said.
Beyond implementing security tools, Hedgepeth believes businesses need ongoing oversight of their cybersecurity infrastructure. He argues that security should not be treated as a one-time purchase but as an ongoing priority, with centralized visibility helping businesses understand how security incidents affect their operations and monitor their overall security stack. He will outsource work to cybersecurity experts while his firm will prioritize security-first initiatives.
“At Designer Technologies, that’s the first thing we prioritize, the customer’s data and the organization’s data, making sure it’s protected,” he said.
As for what’s ahead for Designer Technologies, it’s expanding its services to network and AI readiness assessments.
Speaking to the ladder he said, “AI is only as good as the foundation under it. It depends on fast, stable internet, solid Wi-Fi, healthy switches, and secure access to company data. If a business already struggles with slow Wi-Fi or dropped calls, AI will make those problems more expensive. Many AI projects that ‘didn’t work’ never had a chance because the infrastructure wasn’t ready. Readiness also keeps sensitive data out of tools nobody approved and gives leadership a clear picture of what’s being used.”
He continued, “Large companies have teams to plan this. The dental office, the law firm, and the family-owned business usually don’t. Many of them are minority-owned and can’t afford to guess wrong. Through our complimentary AI & Network Readiness Check, we start with what the owner wants AI to do and walk through whether their network, security, and operations can support it. The businesses that win with AI won’t be the first to adopt it. They’ll be the ones that were ready.”